The Senior Pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, Sam Adeyemi, has called for a review of power structures among African nations, urging leaders to shun cultures that foster a lord-like status over their constituents.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Adeyemi stated that a major reason behind African nations’ struggle with deficient leadership lies in their cultures.

The cleric’s assertion follows President Bola Tinubu’s recent comments that the citizens had a leadership deficit.

Addressing Nigerians in the diaspora at the G20 Summit in India, Tinubu said, “We are not poor in knowledge. We are not poor in human resources. We are only poor in management and leadership.”

Reacting to the President’s comment, Adeyemi decried that despite an abundance of beneficial strategies, the leadership culture in most African nations often prevents great plans from taking root.

“The challenge is that culture will eat your strategy for lunch. It is the same thing for us when it comes to leadership,” he said.

“We have a leadership culture in Africa, and it’s not only Africa – all over the world, you have a leadership culture, and it’s different. But for Africa, it’s peculiar.

“My hypothesis is that our original leadership culture is built on the monarchical structure of government.”

The strategic leadership consultant equated personal habits to the cultures in groups, organisations, or nations.

“Before long, we are back to our default ways of thinking and ways of behaving, and they frustrate any attempt for us to create change,” he said.

“So, you find out that in that system, the leader is superior to the people that are being led. The leader is powerful, and the follower is almost a slave.”

According to him, the cultural approach to leadership is a problem in Nigeria and the determinant of how swiftly the country will move is the average leadership quotient of the nation.

The Daystar senior pastor noted that organisations are sometimes unable to implement the advice and strategy he offers when confronted by cultures.

Illustrating, the 56-year-old cleric said in his Yoruba culture, the words used in leadership revolve around the power of the king.

He added that in societal institutions, the system used is the structure of government, where the leader is superior to the one being led.

“Until we restructure that in our mindset, in our families, businesses, government, and religious institutions, the management of resources becomes a problem because the people at the top who are powerful use that power to channel economic resources to benefit themselves and those close to them,” he said.

Adeyemi said the system will restrain Africa from making optimum use of its resources, noting that the most valuable asset of a country is human beings.

He added that leadership is the world’s greatest need when dealing with uncertainties, unpredictability, and disruption.